1

Workbook Chapter 4 Exercises for Textbook Chapter 4 A. Study questions 1. In order for two morphemes to be cognate, what must they share? 2. In order for two languages to be cognate, what must they share? 3. Is there a difference between two words sharing a derivation, and two words being cognate? Are all cognates derivatives? Are all derivatives cognates? Explain. 4. Thanks to Mr. Dan Piraro for his permission to post the cartoon.

Look up the etymology of the words curse and cursor. Are they cognates? Give some other examples of pairs or sets of words whose appearance with respect to etymology may be deceptive.

2
5. Define allomorphy. What are the differences between opaque allomorphs and transparent allomorphs? 6. Define the term morpheme. Give examples of morphemes of different syllabic lengths. 7. Examine the words below. Are all of them cognates? Parse each one of them. Which ones appear to you to be unrelated to the majority of the words in this group. Example: formalin, conformity = con + form + ity formant, format, formerly, formic, Formica, Formosa, formula,

informational, informer, reformation, uniformity 8. How does a compound differ from a morpheme? Is there a minimum number of morphemes per compound? Is there a maximum number of morphemes per compound? 9. What is the minimum number of roots in a compound? Think of five compounds containing the minimum number of roots and the derivational affix -ive. Can you think of compounds containing significantly more (like, as many as possible) than the minimum number of roots? 10. In what ways do affixes differ from roots? Give five examples of prefixes and five examples of suffixes from English. Define them as precisely as possible (which in some cases may not be very precise, because their meanings tend to be vague). 11. (1) Determine for each of the following words whether the root is a free morpheme or a bound morpheme. (a) (d) insert recount (b) (e) majority imprint (c) (f) circumspect evoke

(2) Is -ity (abnormality, ability, humanity) a bound or free morpheme? 12. Divide the following words up into morphemes: (a) unanswerable (e) pencil (b) interactive (f) unbeatably (c) consonant (g) event (d) teacups (h) fixation

3
B. Roots Your task is to look at the words attached to each root and make sure you know what the meaning of the root contributes to the meaning of the whole word. If you don't see it, look it up in your dictionary. 1. aud 'hear' aud audible audiometer audience audi audiometric audit auditory audition auditorium 2. cant 'sing' cant incantation canto cantabile recant (What explains the forms with initial <ch>?) (Though it looks as if it ought to be the source of incentive, it isn't.) (Are incentor and rechant very common words? If you didn't know them, look them up.) 3. dic 'speak, give' dic indicate(-ive, -ion, -or) abdicate(-ion) vindicate(-ion) edict addict(-ion, -ive) verdict benediction indict contradict(-ion. -ory) dict dictate(-or, -ion) incentor cent enchanted chant(or) rechant chant audit

(Which of the two root meanings appears in addict?) (How do we account for the peculiar pronunciation of indict?) 4. doc 'teach, praise' doct doctor doctrine(-al) indoctrinate(-ion) 5. fa 'speak, spoken about' pha, phe phatic
1

docu document(-ary) docudrama dogma

dog dogmatic dogmatism

doc docile(-ity)

fa fable
2

phas, fess profess(or) profession confess aphasia6

phem blaspheme3 dysphemism4 euphemism5

prophet

fabulous fame(-ous) affable ineffable defame infant7 preface fate

Speaking to establish an atmosphere of sociability rather than communicating ideas. When we say, Good morning, how are you? we are being phatic: we do not expect a recitation of the recent illnesses of the person we are addressing. In spite of some spell-checkers' built-in suggestion, it should not be confused with phallic < Gk. phallos 'penis,' or a representation thereof.

Originally just 'story which is spoken,' has come to mean story about legendary events, often with animals playing the roles of people, usually with a moral point to make. blas means 'evil'. dys means 'bad'. eu means 'good'. a- means 'not' and the suffix -ia means condition. in- means 'not.'

3 4 5 6 7

5
(One could, with good justification, claim that the relation between these allomorphs is too remote, diachronically, to be recognizable synchronically, and that they should be listed as at least two distinct morphemes, perhaps even three. But the semantic coherence is rather striking.) (What sort of trauma causes aphasia, usually?) (How does affable get its sense 'amiable'?) 6. glos 'tongue, speech' glot glottis glottal epiglottis polyglot9
8

glos gloss glossary diglossia hypoglossal isogloss

glottochronology

(The use of the glottis in speech is secondary; what is the primary anatomical function of the glottis?) 7. gno 'to know' gni(t) cognition incognito recognize cognizant agnostic10 prognosis diagnosis diagnostic
11

gnos ignorant ignore12

gnor

8 9

epi- means 'upon' or 'over.' poly- means 'many.' The a- is a form of an meaning 'not.' pro- means 'before.' The i- is a form of in meaning 'not.'

10 11 12

6
8. graph 'make lines, write, record' graph telegraph seismograph phonograph autograph biography13 agraphia ideographic telegram grammar program diagram epigram ideogram anagram14 gram

(See if you can track down the connection between grammar and glamour.) 9. leg 'choose, gather' leg legion elegant/ce sacrilege
15

lect e lect(-ion,-or, -orate,-oral) neg16lect se17lect (-ion) eclectic

(Explain the 'refinement' sense of the word elegant.) (The root has to have the sense 'steal' in order to interpret the word sacrilege. Why?)

13 14 15 16 17

bio means 'life.' ana- means 'from bottom to top', or 'back again.' e- is a form of ex- meaning 'out.' neg means 'not.' se means 'apart.'

7
10. leg 'law, charge' leg allege allegation delegat(-ion) privilege18 colleague collegial legacy legate legal(-ity, ize) (Why do the compounds in the middle have to do with creating laws? What does lat mean?) 11. leg 'speak, write, read, reason' leg legend legendary prolegomenon dialect acrolect basilect mesolect lectern lecture lec(t) logo logogram logic apology prologue dialogue log legis legislate(-ure, -ion, -or) legit legitimate legitimize

NOTE: There is a derivational form, also known as combining form (OED): -(o)logy 'study,' as in biology, anthropology, etc., in which the log is originally this root. NOTE: This root is in origin the same as the leg meaning 'choose, gather,' but with sufficient semantic difference to be listed separately. It may also be the same as the root meaning 'law,' but that is less certain.

18

priv means 'single' or 'alone.'

8
12. loqu 'speak' locu locution circum locution
19

loqu loquacious eloquent soliloquy

(What is the prefix in eloquent?) 13. nom 'name' nom mis20nomer nominate nominal nomenclature nomin ignominy21 ant23onym pseud24onym hom25onym onym an22onymous

(Determine what the clature portion of the word nomenclature comes from. After it was announced that the human gene had been mapped successfully, the journalists coined the word genomenclature. What is the technical term for this coinage?) 14. or 'mouth, speak' or adore oratory (per)oration oral oscular osculatory os

19 20 21 22 23 24 25

circum means 'around. mis- means 'wrongly. ig- is a form of in- 'not. an- means 'without' or 'lacking.' ant(i) means opposite' or 'against. pseudo means 'false' or 'deceptive. homo means 'same'.

9
(Explain the massive semantic change that has taken place in the word adore, which ought to mean simply 'to speak to.') (In peroration, where do we get the sense of 'speaking at great length'?) ETYMOLOGICAL NOTE: usher, though no longer recognizable, actually contains this same root. In Middle English usher meant door keeper; one of the semantic developments from mouth was opening, entrance, and from there 'door.' (Is the word ocsillate a cognate of oratory, oscular? Look up the word history of oscillate in the American Heritage Dictionary.) 15. ques ask, seek ques question request conquest27 inquest query querulous quer quis inquisitive inquisition requisition acquisitive perquisite (Why does the word inquisition have a particularly negative sense?) (Look up the etymological history of perquisite.) 16. scrib 'write' scrib scribe describe ascribe scribble28 transcribe proscribe prescribe
29

quir inquire require26 acquire

script scripture scriptorium description transcription proscription prescription manuscript

26 27 28 29

re- here is intensive: 'to desire very much' has become equivalent to 'having to have something.' con- 'intensifier'; the sense is, to seek until you find (and subdue). the suffix is diminutive. trans- means 'across.'

10

(Figure out how the difference in meaning between proscribe and prescribe follows from the difference in the prefixes.) (How does the sense 'trivial' emerge in the word scribble?) 17. ser 'put, arrange' ser series serial seriatim seriation assert desert dissertation exert insert PHONETIC NOTE: The s- is lost in ex-(s)ert by a principle discussed in Chapter 6. (Try to figure out how desert came to have its present meaning. Don't look it up: just think. Make a similar guess concerning dissertation.) 18. tut 'watch, instruct' tut tutor30 tutelage32 tutorial 19. voc 'speak, call' voc vocal vocabulary advocate vociferous vocation
30 31 32

sert

tuit in31tuition tuition

vok evoke provoke revoke

-or = 'actor/agent' suffix. in- 'on,' 'knowing without the use of reason. The -el- is an extension of the stem, originally for past participle formation.

11

SPELLING NOTE: The root is spelled with -k only when the next letter would cause softening of the -c. Thus provoke, if spelled provoce, would be pronounced [pro-VOS]. 20. The following occur only in a single invariant form (i.e. zero orthographic allomorphy): (a) agog 'lead, teach, induce' pedagog(ue), pedagogy, demagog(ue), demagoguery, synagogue (The word demagogue, though it only means, literally, someone who teaches people, is tarred with totally negative connotations. Why?) (Why do pedagogue and pedagogy sound so stuffy?) (agog is in fact an extension of the familiar root ag act, drive) (b) cosm 'universe, world, order' cosmic, cosmology, cosmos, cosmetic, cosmopolitan, microcosm, macrocosm (How does cosmetic come to refer to such things as lipstick and powder?) (What does the polit of cosmopolitan mean?) (c) (d) (e) etym 'source, true' etymology, etymon, etymological, etymologize (What is "true" about the etymology of a word?) fuse 'pour, melt, blend' confuse, diffuse, effusive, infuse, profuse, suffuse (Not related to the type of fuse which sets of an explosion. Why not?) phon 'sound' cacophony, cacophonic, euphony, euphonious, phonetic, phonetics, phonology, phonograph, symphony (In what sense does a phonograph 'write down' sounds?) (Since symphony just means sound together, it must have undergone what is called "narrowing" of meaning. Try to explain what it might mean to undergo "narrowing of meaning.") (f) top 'place' topic, topology, topical, topography, toponymy, isotopic (Iso means 'equal,' so isotopic means 'equal place.' How does it come to have the special meaning it does in chemistry?) C. Root Practice 1. Discover the root of each of the following words: (a) analogy (b) dialect (c) paragraph (d) denomination (e) sonic (f) docent (g) prophet (h) eclectic 2. Using the information given in the Roots section and your dictionary, parse and

12
define the following words. Example: manuscript: manu - script by hand, write meaning: something written by hand (a) anger (b) diagram (c) equivocal (d) fate (e) glossitis (f) graphic (g) ineffable (h) interlocutor (i) legislate (j) parallelogram (k) phonology (l) physiognomy (m) plebiscite (n) predict (o) quest (p) sermon (q) ventriloquist